Trauma-Informed Relational Somatics is the foundation training created by somatic therapist, Natalia Rachel.
This is an integrative professional development training that focuses on attunement above all, and blends talk and touch therapy to support clients recovering from trauma, and moving into post-traumatic growth, and transformation.

Certification by Illuma Health provided, pending post-training assessment and case submissions.
For more information on certification please contact us.


Experiential Training
As this is an experiential training, participants should come ready to explore their own stories through vulnerable sharing and somatic exploration. As always, it is through our embodied experience, that we can best integrate our learnings and go on to share in the world!

Who would benefit from this training?
  • Talk therapists/counselors seeking to integrate a trauma-informed and somatic approach to care.
  • Somatic practitioners interested in deepening their touch skills and somatic listening capabilities.
  • Movement & Embodiment facilitators interested in cultivating a trauma-informed practice and enhancing 1-1 space holding capabilities.
  • Health professionals who want to expand their toolkit and adopt a trauma-informed approach to care.

What can I expect from Module 1 and Module 2?

You will learn how to set an intention for a session, establish somatic resonance, and use both touch technique and verbal cues to safely somatize a client, repair the mind-split, and how to respond to spontaneous release. The curriculum has been developed with the intent not to re-traumatize, and to promote both internal and relational safety always.

More than techniques, more than by-the-book processes...

Why is the somatic approach helpful when working with someone with unresolved trauma?

Module 1 – Attunement & Safe Somatization

What will happen in Module One?

In this course, you will learn a relational approach to trauma recovery, how to understand what the client might need, and how to respond to different threat responses and trauma stories.

Areas of exploration Module One:

1) Safely somatize / repair mind-body split. 

2) Good handle on reading and responding to threat responses - helping the client approach ventral vagal. 

3) Hypnotic language to pair with holds.

4) Somatic intuition - learning to understand and respond to your own somatic signals in a session.

5) Touch skills Part A.

a) gentle touch holds
b) working with the head
c) promoting local unwinding (coming out of freeze)

6) How to layout a somatization session, from intention setting, to containment and integration.

7) Emotional somatics - how to identify emotional charge, and help the client make sense.

8) Responding to spontaneous release - how to increase safety, and ensure re-suppression doesn’t occur.

9) Processing shame - a precursor to deeper emotional processing.

10) Psychoeducation Part A.


NOTE: In order to join module 2, you will need to complete module 1.



Module 2 – Intentional Trauma Processing

What will happen in Module Two?


In Module Two, which is the sequel to Module One, we will explore intentional trauma processing. Module Two builds on the foundation set by Module One.
You will learn how to navigate the client's trauma story, identify trigger threads, and work to access suppressed somatic content for gentle and contained release and integration.
You will also learn how to psycho-educate a client and how to help them make sense of their experience.

Areas of exploration Module Two:

1) Emotional release theory: Understanding how emotions live in the body, gain movement, momentum, and release. We will explore the core triangle of emotions: fear, anger, grief.

2) Emotional release practice:  building tools to support release:
I) touch for release,
ii) verbal cues
iii) working with somatic expression - movement, breath & sound

3) Somatic intuition - developing the capacity to sense emotion, and bring gentle awareness to the client.

4) Working with resistance and fragmentation - an introduction to somatic parts therapy.

5) Touch skills Part B. Advanced touch applications - working the jaw, throat,  diaphragm, and psoas.

6) Psychoeducation Part B.

7) Root causes, trauma maps, and essential illuminations for processing:  emotions, thoughts, unconscious organizing principles, and somatic presentation.

 8) Introduction to transference.

 9) Introduction to existential exploration - working with un-belonging in the body and the world.


Watch session demos here

Full Table Demonstration with Chloe
Full Table Demonstration with Dominica
Full Table Demonstration with Stephanie
Full Demonstration with Xiao Ting

How TIRS was born

Praise for Trauma-informed Relational Somatics

“There is a real push for healthcare to be trauma-informed and so I was seeking my own development in this, as a health professional and an educator. I have now attended a couple of different trainings with Natalia and, apart from having a lot of experience and wisdom, she also curates her learning experiences to support a structured progression with clear direction for how learnings can be applied. And this is always done within a context of safety. In the TIRS modules, I really welcomed being challenged and stretched to find new ways of understanding clinical practice, and as part of that, exploring my own relational journey.”

Lester Jones (Physiotherapist/Educator)

“I deeply appreciated learning from Natalia through TIRS 1, 2 and the mentorship, as well as assisting. Natalia holds safe, gentle space that welcomes curiosity. She breaks down the teachings so that they are digestible. I enjoyed the interactive learning as well as the theory of approaching care for trauma. With the training, I felt more confident and resourced to work with various individuals to process their trauma stories. 100% recommend TIRS for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding and relationship to themselves, or to extend care to others with this gentle somatic approach.”

Stephanie Leong (Somatic Therapist)

“In my practice as a psychotherapist, I recognized that talk therapy has a limit in terms of the healing of emotions and trauma. Learning TIRS modules 1 and 2 with Natalia has been groundbreaking not only for my practice but also in my exploration of my journey. I appreciate the somatic and relational approach of TIRS which is both gentle and powerful. Along with the learning of theory and techniques, Natalia also curates the learning experiences to support a structured progression and direction of how the learnings can be applied for everyone. Through the course, she has held a safe space that welcomes curiosity, authenticity, and expression. I’d not only built my resources as a therapist but also deepened my understanding and relationship with myself. I deeply appreciate the learnings and her space holding for everyone, and recommend TIRS to any therapists, caregivers, or individuals who wish to build their care kit and relationship with others and themselves.”

Vivian C. (Psychotherapist)

About The Facilitator

Natalia Rachel

Author Bio

Natalia Rachel shares her voice to begin to remedy the world’s state of hustle, bias, disrespect and disrepair and find our way back to ourselves and each other. Spending much of her life building ladders to climb out of oppressive dynamics and systems, Natalia learned to break free from trauma, oppression and hopelessness and build a life full of peace and power. After a heartbreaking 17 years of mental health misdiagnosis and physical illness that nearly took her life, Natalia went on to study around the world, train as a therapist and specialise in trauma recovery and transformation. Her time in healthcare administration and organizational development in Asia as well as her global teaching roster, led her to explore how trauma and oppression shape relationship dynamics, cultures & systems and find the points of intersection where healing becomes accessible beyond language, story or commercial construct. From the age of 7, she has used the power of poetry and prose to help herself and others make sense of complex, often unarticulated experiences, that release shame, inspire hope, and call us all to radical accountability and deeper compassion. Her words are both profound, playful and make it safe to start exploring the unseen and unexpressed. Her mission is to unearth the things we can’t quite put our finger on or are too afraid to say. Her work provides a counterpoint to modern leadership norms and an invitation to societal reorganization. She places the power or relationship front and centre of the change we desire and deserve.

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